The shipping of goods between businesses, such as retailers and suppliers, has been automated to the extent such that computer systems are regularly involved. Communication between computer systems between the originating shipping location and the carrier has all but eliminated the need for manual preparation of manifests, shipping labels, weight and rate calculations, and calculating associated parcel shipping charges.
Similarly, carriers have also incorporated computers to assist in the shipping of parcels in virtually all aspects. Frequently, a carrier will maintain records for each individual item handled, and this is routine for carriers delivering parcels. Some carriers also maintain real time status information for each parcel, allowing a carrier to track and monitor the progress of a parcel as it is being shipped. Some carriers maintain tracking data for each individual parcel for their own tracking applications and allow access to the same information to the parcel's originators and recipients. This may be a free service designed to augment the basic service provided by a carrier. An individual parcel's delivery status information is valuable to users for a variety of reasons.
Aggregate shipping information pertaining to parcel delivery is also useful to users, but as a source of business intelligence. Shipping information can provide businesses with insight regarding growth areas, trends, and sales volumes. In an environment in which an originator at a single location sends parcels to another business at a single destination, aggregate shipping data as a form of business intelligence can be easily obtained. Frequently, the computer systems employed to manage incoming or outgoing parcels can generate reports regarding the volume of packages, or total cost in shipping charges over a specified time period. Such information can even be used to compare figures in a current shipping period with a past shipping period. In the context of a single point of origination, reviewing shipping records is fairly simple when obtained from the computer system that prepares parcels for shipping.
However, many businesses today do not have a single location. It is common for retail businesses to have a national presence with hundreds or even thousands of business locations. For many businesses, multiple retail locations may exist in a given city, state or region. In large cities, suppliers may have multiple warehouse locations from which goods are shipped. Frequently, regional warehouses may be established with replicating inventories, such as in grocery distribution, or regional warehouses may be established with disjoint inventories, such as in manufacturing industries. Thus, even though a single vendor's ships products to a single customer, the shipments may originate from a variety of locations, and similarly, may be directed to a variety of destinations.
Consequently, analyzing shipping information is complicated because of the de-centralized nature of the shipping information. Shipping information related to a single origination or destination cannot provide a comprehensive perspective when multiple locations are involved. Some businesses with multiple shipping/receiving locations coordinate and collect shipping information, but various complications can arise. For example, various parcel processing systems and communication standards may significantly complicate the process of collecting and analyzing shipping information.
For businesses with multiple locations using a single carrier for parcel shipment, shipping information may already be collected and maintained by the carrier in a consistent format. However, even if the carrier allows users to access their shipping data, methods must be devised for analyzing the information. Businesses collecting such data, whether internally or by accessing a carrier's database, require sophisticated analysis requiring the purchase, development and operation of a special purpose information analysis systems. Businesses would require additional personnel and capital resources to develop and deploy such systems. Obviously, a single centralized business intelligence system designed to analyze shipping data shared by multiple users is less expensive than if each user had to develop and deploy individual replicating systems. Therefore, there is a need for a centralized business intelligence system for analyzing shipping information providing such services to users on a shared basis.
The utility of a business intelligence system based only on historical shipping data can be enhanced by consideration of further information, such as economic data. Comparison of shipping data with economic data provides a perspective for interpreting shipping information. For example, knowing that shipping volumes have increased faster than the inflation rate or faster than regional growth rates provides additional insight to interpreting business trends. Other data, such as macro-economic data, may indicate that an increase in units shipped to a given areas may be a function of a growing population base or increasing regional economic activity.
The utility can be further enhanced by combining shipping information with other information provided by the user. For example, information of the number of parcels shipped is made more useful when combined with knowledge of the units packaged in a parcel. Therefore, there is a need for a business intelligence information system incorporating shipping information supplemented with additional data for analyzing shipping data.